Best Food Dehydrator - What Features to Consider

Food dehydrators are great product to own. According to the President and CEO of L'equip, it costs one-tenth of the price to dry foods at home compared to buying them in the grocery store. Not only do they save you money, but food dehydration is the least damaging way to preserve food. However, with so many different food dehydrators on the market, how do you know which one to choose.
When purchasing a food dehydrator, there are several different factors to consider.

• How is the fan mounted? - Fans can either be mounted at the bottom of the appliance or the top or side. Fans mounted on the bottom are called vertical air flow while fans mounted at the side are called horizontal airflow. Top-mounted ... or side-mounted fans are the best. They prevent food flavors from mixing and dripping from touching the elements.
• Is the heating element enclosed? - If the heating element is enclosed, you don't have to worry about the juices from food dripping on it.
• How much wattage does it have? - The more watts you have, the more drying power you have. For the average food dehydration task, 500 watts is a good choice. However, if you have a model with the option to add additional trays, you will probably want to buy a dehydrator with even more watts.
• Size - If you have a small kitchen or lack of storage space, size is important. Do you have enough space to store it? Do you have enough counter top space to use it?
• How long is the warranty? - The average warranty on a food dehydrator is one year. However unbelievably, some warranties with L'equip food dehydrators are 12-year limited warranties.
• Does it have an adjustable thermostat? - Different foods dry better at different temperatures.
• Does it have a timer?
• How many trays does it have?
• Is there a hole in the middle of the tray? - Dehydrators with holes in the middle of the tray tend not to dry the food evenly.
• Can you add more trays?
• How big are the trays?
• What is the total drying area?
• Cost per square foot of drying area - This is calculated by dividing the number of watts by square feet.
• How much space is there in between the trays?
• Does it have a UL seal of approval?

After you've considered all of these factors along with how much you want to pay for a unit, it should give you a good idea of which food dehydrator to buy. If the food dehydrator is sold at Amazon, it is also beneficial to read the customer reviews. If see repeated problems in the customer reviews, you may want to avoid that model.